I'll be honest, losing this game wasn't the end of the world. six points from these three games is more than a lot of pwole wouldn't have expected.

My real concern? Great home form, but we've lost our last three away from the lane, and we've only got one more home game.

Garibaldi wrote:I'll be honest, losing this game wasn't the end of the world. six points from these three games is more than a lot of pwole wouldn't have expected.

My real concern? Great home form, but we've lost our last three away from the lane, and we've only got one more home game.

Exactly 6 points from those 3 was fantastic, as Chas n Dave would say, mustn't grumble.

tbh what we got today is what you get when you don't have a RB against a team with talented wingers. both penalties came from mistakes by the makeshift RB - I hope for 'Arry's sake that Hutton and Naughton are both "no recall" loans, because if we miss out due to problems with the cover full-backs and he could have brought one back then there will be questions.

'Arry really needs to look carefully at the team now, because one out of Thud, Palacios and Modric is going to have to start missing out (or we switch to one striker with Luka in the hole) unless he intends to work on Bale defensively, because when Lennon came on for 15-20 minutes we showed that with him on the right and Bale on the left ahead of BAE we can match any side - have to be our default wide players now

And we dropped 3points in three games against the big boys...how did your boys do in two games roberto?

Spurs IMO will pip Citeh to 4th place, with them winning the battle between them in a week or so. Man U back in with a shout, worry that Rooneys not likely to play for rest of season, time for Berbalazy to get his finger out and prove he's worth keeping a hold of next season

Oh he's worth it, you just have to appreciate him...

Doing some math, helped by the fact hat the game in hand is Citeh v Spurs, Villa HAVE to get something out of their game against the Dream on team next weekend.

Ignore our game with Bolton for the time being, and let's take it for granted that their weak goal difference will not suddenly jump...

They lose, they are level with Spurs and two behind City. Either of them win their meeting for the game in hand, they'll be clear of Villa (GD at least), and a draw will leave them topo far behgind to overtake Citeh.

They draw, they'd be a point clear of both sdes, so a win for either and they're two points adrift - one point from Citeh's other game, or from Tottenham's two (depending on the team that won) and they're out of it. A draw and they're al level, so they'd still need better than Citeh in the last game and better than Spurs in their two others.

So lose, they're done, draw and it's a very hard job. It's a win or nothing, and ideally hoping Bolton get something at white hart lane where a lot of better teams have failed lately.

Their one saving grace (except it helps us as well) is that Given's out for the season.


At the top? well, even the soft penalty for the third yesterday won't give United the GD they need to allow them to pip Chelsea if it gets that tight, so it's going top be down to the points now.

Wait wait wait. So Man City are requesting permission to sign a keeper on loan to fill in for Given, even though the transfer window has closed? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the transfer window?

God, if that's true, that's something I don't really appreciate about European football. Seems like the window is pointless and teams can go whine to replace a player. In baseball, if a player gets injured after the trade deadline, you have to make due with what you have. That's what makes the trade deadline a deadline.

MK wrote:Wait wait wait. So Man City are requesting permission to sign a keeper on loan to fill in for Given, even though the transfer window has closed? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the transfer window?

God, if that's true, that's something I don't really appreciate about European football. Seems like the window is pointless and teams can go whine to replace a player. In baseball, if a player gets injured after the trade deadline, you have to make due with what you have. That's what makes the trade deadline a deadline.

They want to make an emergency loan, not a signing. The loan window stays open til March I think, and they can't recall Joe Hart because there is no recall clause with Birmingham. They aren't allowed to sign or loan anyone, which is why they are making an emergency request to the PL. They shouldn't get anything when they have a fully fit keeper ready to go though.

Outlaw2x4 wrote:

MK wrote:Wait wait wait. So Man City are requesting permission to sign a keeper on loan to fill in for Given, even though the transfer window has closed? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the transfer window?

God, if that's true, that's something I don't really appreciate about European football. Seems like the window is pointless and teams can go whine to replace a player. In baseball, if a player gets injured after the trade deadline, you have to make due with what you have. That's what makes the trade deadline a deadline.

They want to make an emergency loan, not a signing. The loan window stays open til March I think, and they can't recall Joe Hart because there is no recall clause with Birmingham. They aren't allowed to sign or loan anyone, which is why they are making an emergency request to the PL. They shouldn't get anything when they have a fully fit keeper ready to go though.

Yeah, that's why I was so confused/angry. You have a back-up keeper for a reason. If they had no keepers behind Given, I'd understand their need to bring a different keeper in. But since they have a perfectly fit keeper ready to go, they should stop their bitching.

MK wrote:

Outlaw2x4 wrote:

MK wrote:Wait wait wait. So Man City are requesting permission to sign a keeper on loan to fill in for Given, even though the transfer window has closed? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of the transfer window?

God, if that's true, that's something I don't really appreciate about European football. Seems like the window is pointless and teams can go whine to replace a player. In baseball, if a player gets injured after the trade deadline, you have to make due with what you have. That's what makes the trade deadline a deadline.

They want to make an emergency loan, not a signing. The loan window stays open til March I think, and they can't recall Joe Hart because there is no recall clause with Birmingham. They aren't allowed to sign or loan anyone, which is why they are making an emergency request to the PL. They shouldn't get anything when they have a fully fit keeper ready to go though.

Yeah, that's why I was so confused/angry. You have a back-up keeper for a reason. If they had no keepers behind Given, I'd understand their need to bring a different keeper in. But since they have a perfectly fit keeper ready to go, they should stop their bitching.

Agreed. When the rules are proposed the clubs would have agreed to it it if this was allowed. It took decades below they allowed 2 clubs to get relegated from division 4.

I beleive they snapped up Sunderland's Martin Fulop last night

...who aint terrible - was on our books for a couple of years as our No. 3

Annoying thing is, they've only lost 3 keepers through injuries or this loan - they've got 16 on their books overall. Sure some are kids, but some are youth, some are reserves...their argument is that they're "not registered" for the PL (think Triple-A and they don't want to bring them up...). Bring back the days when running short on players meant a team actually RISKED a kid.

Seriously, from our perspective, giving the kids a chance actually allowed cult Spurs heroes like David Howells, Vinny Samways, Paul Moran, Guy Butters, Mark Robson, the wonderfully named Alton Thelwell and a couple of lesser known guys called Stephen Carr, Sol Campbell and Ian Walker to get a chance to play. It also gave a bunch of others a chance to show what they could do that never made the grade at the top level. Without that option, though, how many of that first list would have missed out?

I think its a slap in the face to poor Gunnar Nielsen, who is actually a decent GK, maybe not EPL standard, but good enough to see the season out

'Mon the Villa...

Edit: AND 'MON THE THUD!!!

Edit: Aw Crap...

That's Villa out of it, now, and everything hinging on the game at the Eastlands.

Can't ask any more than winning your last 8 straight home games, even though we should have buried Bolton today, judging by the commentary, which would have wiped out the GD defecit

Just hope Gomes has just tweaked something...or maybe Alnwick can pick up a little "knock" and we can emergency loan in a keeper (Assuming Jimmy Walker is still carrying his injury) ! I'd love to see Fergie offer us Foster on loan just to shut up the noisy neighbours

Glad to see Spurs into CL football. Just shows City that you can't buy success.

Also, I would not be surprised if Spurs leapfrogged Arsenal for 3rd. Arsenal have a tough side in Fulham coming to the Emirates, and Spurs travel to Turf Moor.

A top 3 finish for Spurs??

More likely than I would have expected, but still needs Arsenal to lose again to happen.

Would LOVE to see it, but I don't see it happening unfortunately.

What I do think we're seeing is the next step in the rise of the teams like Spurs, Villa and Everton who have survived on non-CL budgets taking over from the debt-ridden old guard. It's the sixth year of either Everton or Spurs in the top 5, Villa have been just short for a couple of years, so they've been chipping away and this could be the moment that the scales tip. Liverpool cold be a fringe team for a while, Arsenal have been struggling for a few years to keep up, United's debt and the impending loss of Alex could be critical to them and Chelsea's team are both getting old and unsustainable without Rom's bank account. You have to wonder what these "lesser" sides could manage with CL money and appeal to temptbig names.

It's good for the competition that the top 4 have been broken, but then again if you look at the money that Spurs and Man City have spent...

And once again, we get back to a key point...Spurs, Villa and Everton have all spent within their budgets, funds have been made availale through big sales and proper management. That's something that City and the big four have all failed to do.

If we've spent that much, then it shows just how much of a budget we had without being a so-called "big" club...

Garibaldi wrote:And once again, we get back to a key point...Spurs, Villa and Everton have all spent within their budgets, funds have been made availale through big sales and proper management. That's something that City and the big four have all failed to do.

If we've spent that much, then it shows just how much of a budget we had without being a so-called "big" club...

Arsenal have challenged for the title for the last four years with less than half the transfer budget of Spurs, and still finished higher than spurs, everton and villa. Not to mention the increible profits made on Henry, Adebayor, Toure, and the players we have picked up for peanuts. While we are in a debt over the stadium we are in much better financial shape than most clubs at this level. And aren't Spurs planning on building they're own stadium soon? That'll put a dent in their bid to remain in the top four.

Not having a go Gari. I'm actually delighted for spurs to get the fourth spot. But I think your being a little biased when saying Arsenal are struggling to keep up. We only conceded the title in the last five games of the season and that was due to an unbelievable injury list. I mean, a dissappointing season for Arsenal and we finish third (probably) , and an amaing season for spurs and they finsh fourth. So how are Arsenal struggling compared to Spurs?

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11677_6303051,00.html

Didn't see that coming!

Outlaw2x4 wrote:http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11677_6303051,00.html

Didn't see that coming!

Suprising, reckon he's sick of villa losing players to Man City?

Hopefully it is a disagreement over transfers and not a sickness in the family like the time he stepped down from Celtic.mIt's not really his style to leave a club in the lurch but heres hoping Villa's loss is United's gain, get him into Old Trafford in some capacity and have him for when Sir Alex steps down!!

Very strange and quite out of character, unless as IOV says it's bad news. I hope it isn't to do with Man City as that's going to reflect badly on the owner, who until yesterday was regarded highly but now could be on the same level as Deadly Doug Ellis and Baron Alan Sugar. Fans need to realise that running a club is like running a business, you can't turn down stupid offers for players (BTW, how much is Ashley Young going for? if it's <£20m than I my view may change.) the long term future is more important than short term silverwear, ask Pompey fans.


Edit: Villa's wage bill is £11m more a season than Spurs

Hello...

Wasn't sure where to put this, but I purchased the ESPN World Cup Companion book a few months ago and now I'm looking for a comprehensive book on English football. I did some searching, but couldn't find anything that looked like what I was looking for. I want histories of clubs, history of the game, and everything in-between.

Can anyone help me out?

MK wrote:Wasn't sure where to put this, but I purchased the ESPN World Cup Companion book a few months ago and now I'm looking for a comprehensive book on English football. I did some searching, but couldn't find anything that looked like what I was looking for. I want histories of clubs, history of the game, and everything in-between.

Can anyone help me out?

Club history is fairly well covered on Wikipedia, and check out club websites. Don't know where to look up history of the game though.

Man City's starting to make me sick.

I'm dying to find a beckford Everton kit to purchase. Are they even available?

MK wrote:I'm dying to find a beckford Everton kit to purchase. Are they even available?

http://soccertriads.com/english-teams/everton/cat_63.html

Out of Stock a the moment but keep an eye on it. They are not official shirts but I can almost completely guarentee you wont be able to tell the difference and the price is subtantially better.

Otherwise go here http://evertondirect.evertonfc.com/stores/everton/products/kit_selector.aspx?pid=72018

Very pricey. Too much for my taste.

Anyone else find Chelsea really bland? I know they are scoring goals for fun but they are far from entertaining, Arsenal scored the same amount yesterday and did it in an enjoyable manner for a nuetral to watch. Even United scoring half against the Toon on Monday were better to watch!

Anyway that bit of moaning out of the way, Fulham away will be a tough game today, I can see goals in the game and hope the majority are for United and maybe a goal for Rooney to get him back on track.

Toon dropped 6 on villa....

Guess its time to find that permanent manager...